– In this April 9, 1984 file photo, actress Penny Marshall arrives for the 56th Annual Academy Awards in Los Angeles. Marshall died of complications from diabetes on Monday, Dec. 17, 2018, at her Hollywood Hills home. She was 75. (AP Photo/Reed Saxon, File)

LOS ANGELES (AP) — Penny Marshall, who starred in “Laverne & Shirley” before becoming one of the top-grossing female directors in Hollywood, has died. She was 75.

Mashall’s publicist, Michelle Bega, said Marshall passed away in her Hollywood Hills, Calif., home on Monday due to complications from diabetes.

In this Sept. 9, 1979 file photo, Penny Marshal, left,l and Cindy Williams from the comedy series “Laverne & Shirley” appear at the Emmy Awards in Los Angeles. Marshall died of complications from diabetes on Monday, Dec. 17, 2018, at her Hollywood Hills home. She was 75. (AP Photo/George Brich, FIle)

Marshall starred alongside Cindy Williams in the hit ABC comedy “Laverne & Shirley,” which aired from 1976 to 1983. As a filmmaker, she became the first woman to direct a film that grossed more than $100 million with “Big,” the 1988 comedy starring Tom Hanks. She also directed “A League of Their Own,” ″Jumpin’ Jack Flash” and “Awakenings.”

]]>https://newpittsburghcourieronline.com/2018/12/18/actress-and-director-penny-marshall-dies-at-age-75/feed/02331rtmsbroadusGlobal voter suppression efforts against Black Americans are confirmed in new reporthttps://newpittsburghcourieronline.com/2018/12/18/global-voter-suppression-efforts-against-black-americans-are-confirmed-in-new-report/
https://newpittsburghcourieronline.com/2018/12/18/global-voter-suppression-efforts-against-black-americans-are-confirmed-in-new-report/#respondTue, 18 Dec 2018 19:41:58 +0000http://newpittsburghcourieronline.com/?p=312090A new report detailed how the Russians specifically targeted African-American voters in the 2016 election to help President Donald Trump win—adding to domestic efforts to suppress the Black vote.

The New York Times obtained an advanced copy of the report that was released on Monday, and it found that a Russian-backed team used an array of tactics to suppress turnout among Democrats through social media outlets, especially Instagram and Facebook.

“We’re raising awareness about an attack on Black and brown users, which Facebook was in part complicit with. The Russian interference during the 2016 election called into question the integrity of the voting processes that took place, and overwhelmingly, people of color have suffered the most as a result of that election,” he stated.

The efforts through Facebook and Instagram focused on developing Black audiences and disproportionately recruited unwitting African-American activists who were sometimes paid to stage rallies to create turmoil.

“As Russia takes aim at African-American voters, we can’t ignore the fact that people of color remain the primary targets for voter suppression schemes right here on American soil. In setting its main target on African Americans, Russia is taking a page out of the U.S. voter suppression playbook; by allowing voter suppression domestically, we send a dangerous message to bad actors such as Russia that Black votes don’t matter,” Kristen Clarke, president and executive director of the Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights Under Law, said.

A St. Petersburg company called the Internet Research Agency operated the influence campaign. It was owned by businessman Yevgeny V. Prigozhin who has a close connection to Russian President Vladimir Putin.

The company created a dozen fake websites using names that would appeal to African Americans, such as blackmattersus.com, blacktivist.info, blacktolive.org and blacksoul.us. It operated a YouTube channel that covered the Black Lives Matter movement and police brutality.

On Facebook, ads targeted users who showed an interest in certain topics like Black history or the Black Panther Party.

The NAACP called for its digital protest of Facebook ahead of Monday’s release of the report. Over the past year, the organization said it expressed concern about the company’s multiple data and privacy breaches, as well as the lack of employee diversity at large tech companies.

“We’re holding Facebook accountable for the role it played in the proliferation of propaganda against people of color. The hackers preyed on the vulnerability of racial tensions in America, and Facebook fed them our information on a silver platter. As a corporation, Facebook needs to acknowledge this negligence, and we’re empowering people to use #LogOutFacebook as a means to express their discontent,” Johnson stated.

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]]>https://newpittsburghcourieronline.com/2018/12/18/global-voter-suppression-efforts-against-black-americans-are-confirmed-in-new-report/feed/0redward298Statue of Liberty climber Patricia Okoumou is convicted for protesting Trumphttps://newpittsburghcourieronline.com/2018/12/18/statue-of-liberty-climber-patricia-okoumou-is-convicted-for-protesting-trump/
https://newpittsburghcourieronline.com/2018/12/18/statue-of-liberty-climber-patricia-okoumou-is-convicted-for-protesting-trump/#respondTue, 18 Dec 2018 19:30:52 +0000http://newpittsburghcourieronline.com/?p=312093Therese Patricia Okoumou got a slow clap around the world when she scaled the Statue of Liberty on July 4. In a now famous photo, she sat with her legs crossed at the base of Lady Liberty while a police rescuer was just a few feet away from her.

Source: Bruce Wright/NewsOne.com / Bruce Wright/NewsOne.com

Okoumou was there for approximately two hours before she was apprehended. The 44-year-old was protesting Trump’s racist immigrant policy, which included the separation policy that has kept thousands of children detained apart from their parents.

The Congo native, who now resides in New York City’s Staten Island, on Monday was found guilty of multiple misdemeanors. According to Pix 11, she “was found guilty of three misdemeanor charges: trespassing, disorderly conduct and interfering with government functions.” She was scheduled to be sentenced March 5, 2019, and faces up to six months in jail for each charge.

“The act of climbing the base of the Statue of Liberty went well beyond peaceable protest, a right we certainly respect. It was a crime that put people at grave risk,” U.S. Attorney Geoffrey S. Berman said during a press conference Monday.

Okoumou seemed optimistic, if not resolute, following being found guilty.

“I’m hoping that this is an opportunity for me not only to talk to the judge but to the whole world as I did on the 4th of July to remind everyone that we have children in cages and there are still a lot of children in cages,” she said at a press conference Monday. “No child belongs in a cage. Period.”

Breaking: Patricia Okoumou was convicted today of all charges in federal court for climbing the Statue of Liberty on July 4 to protest the detention of immigrant children. Here she speaks to supporters outside the courthouse. She will be sentenced on March 5. @prisonculturepic.twitter.com/jaogAZJ0QI

Hopefully, Okoumou will serve no time and continue her activism, which goes beyond immigration. In September, she participated in the March For Black Women and joined others in calling for a renewal of the Violence Against Women Act, which former president Bill Clinton signed into law in 1994. Additionally, Okoumou has advocated for gun control and supported the Marjory Stoneman Douglas high school students activists.

New England Patriots tight end Rob Gronkowski (87) is tackled by Pittsburgh Steelers free safety Sean Davis (21) and Coty Sensabaugh (24) during the second half of an NFL football game in Pittsburgh, Sunday, Dec. 16, 2018. (AP Photo/Don Wright)

PITTSBURGH (AP) — Joe Haden saw the ball floating toward him, Rob Gronkowski bearing down on him, stretched out every inch of his 5-foot-11 frame and hoped for the best.

For once, the first time in a while, the best actually happened for the erratic Pittsburgh Steelers defense.

Haden’s leaping fourth-quarter interception — one in which he outjumped both Gronkowski and New England teammate Julian Edelman then somehow kept both feet inbounds despite getting crunched to the Heinz Field turf — and the ensuing cathartic celebration not only served as a critical turning point in a 17-10 victory , but appeared to restore the swagger to a unit badly in need of some following a three-game losing streak.

“We were just trying to figure out a way to get turnovers,” Haden said. “We’ve been letting the team down a little bit in the fourth quarter. Having a lead and things like that. So we’ve been talking about turnovers. I feel like being able to get that one was big for us.”

The pick was just the fifth by the Steelers in 14 meetings against New England quarterback Tom Brady and their seventh of the season. It was also the kind of momentum-halting stop Pittsburgh was unable to get during its recent slide, games in which the Steelers led after halftime only to have it slip away, something that wasn’t lost on Haden.

“Having that three-game losing streak, we weren’t really stopping anything in the second half of games,” Haden said. “We really talked about that and trying to make it right before the playoffs.”

The postseason is still far from a certainty for Pittsburgh (8-5-1), which holds a half-game lead over Baltimore in the AFC North with two weeks remaining. Yet there were promising signs the defense may have figured something out.

Gronkowski, who had dominated the Steelers throughout his career, was held to just two receptions for 21 yards. And while Brady threw for 279 yards, 63 of them came on a busted coverage by the Steelers on New England’s fourth offensive snap and another 63 came during New England’s last-ditch drive with Pittsburgh in something akin to a prevent defense.

When the Patriots neared the Pittsburgh goal line, the Steelers forced four straight incompletions to earn their first victory over the Patriots since 2011.

In between New England’s first possession and its last, Brady managed just 144 yards through the air and the Patriots mustered a single Stephen Gostkowski field goal. Brady allowed the Steelers mixed up coverages in ways it had not in previous meetings, though that’s hardly atypical.

“I thought they played good,” Brady said. “They made some plays. We certainly had some opportunity out there and I give them credit, because they made important plays when they needed too.”

All the way to the final snap. Brady’s fourth-down heave to the end zone intended for Edelman was knocked down by safety Morgan Burnett, who has endured an uneven first season with the Steelers.

Signed as a free agent in the offseason to help provide veteran leadership to a largely young group, Burnett has spent most of it on the sideline because of various injuries. He certainly appeared to be just fine, however, when he spiked Brady’s 36th and final pass attempt.

“You knew what was going to happen at that point of the game,” Burnett said. “No timeouts. Fourth down. You knew they were going to take a shot toward the goal posts. At that point you are just thinking ‘Get the ball on the ground.’ If you don’t catch it, just get it on the ground so they don’t catch it in the end zone.”

Sounds simple, but it hasn’t been for the Steelers of late. The Los Angeles Chargers roared back from a 16-point halftime deficit at Heinz Field on Dec. 2 thanks in part to Pittsburgh’s inability to make the plays that were there for the taking. Haden and Sean Davis collided while trying to pick off Chargers quarterback Philip Rivers in the end zone.

Eli Kosanovich, a senior at Aliquippa Junior/Senior High School, laughs and chats with other students before the start of a physics class on Dec. 5, 2018. (Photo by Ryan Loew/PublicSource)

Part of the PublicSource series…Failing the Future

Eli Kosanovich, a senior at Aliquippa Junior/Senior High School and star quarterback for the Quips football team, pushes boundaries. On the field and in the classroom. On the gridiron this fall, Eli led his team to the state championship. Along the way, he passed for a school record of more than 3,000 yards and completed 39 touchdowns. In the classroom, he has earned a 4.3 GPA.

This story isn’t the typical story of a student who just happens to be athletic and book smart, but rather a story of how an uncommon arrangement has allowed a student to achieve both in unlikely circumstances.

Eli’s football achievements fall within the Aliquippa School District.

But his academic successes are shared with the Hopewell Area School District, where Eli has been able to take Advanced Placement and honors courses that aren’t available at Aliquippa Junior/Senior High School.

“It was a great opportunity for me to do that…” Eli said. “The teachers, they are great, too, up there. They welcomed me like I was one of their own.”

The arrangement between Hopewell and Aliquippa is one example of sharing among school districts of varying wealth. The Aliquippa district is on the state’s financial watch list. The sharing of resources between the two districts is a remnant of a countywide cooperative agreement that started in 2007 with a now-expired federal grant.

This combination of undated file photos provided by the County of Allegheny, Pa., shows Robert Thomas, left, and Cheron Shelton. (Allegheny County via AP, File)

PITTSBURGH (AP) — A judge said he will “seriously” consider a motion to bar the death penalty in the case of two men accused of killing five people and an unborn baby at a Pennsylvania cookout.

Cheron Shelton, 31, and Robert Thomas, 30, are charged in the March 2016 killings in Pittsburgh’s Wilkinsburg suburb. Authorities allege Thomas opened fire on one side and Shelton then gunned down victims running onto a porch for safety.

Defense attorney Michael Machen, who would represent Thomas in a penalty phase proceeding if he is convicted of first-degree murder, has asked Common Pleas Judge Edward Borkowski to bar capital punishment as unconstitutionally cruel. He cited a bipartisan commission’s report concluding that the state’s death penalty process is deeply flawed, with death sentences often resulting from bad lawyering or based on the county in which the crimes were committed. Defense attorneys for Shelton plan to join the motion.

Common Pleas Judge Edward Borkowski said Monday that he is seriously considering the motion, noting he had “other concerns” about the application of the death penalty in the commonwealth, the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette reported .

The judge noted the cost of prosecuting a criminal case and then housing an inmate on death row, as well as the “impact and trauma” on jurors who must sit on capital cases.

The motion also cited the report’s statistics that 14 percent of Pennsylvania’s inmates on death row have an IQ of 75 or below, and that 25 percent have an active mental health disorder. In addition, the report said twice as many death row inmates have been exonerated as have been executed in recent decades– three inmates since 1962 have been put to death by waiving further appeals while six have been cleared.

Gov. Tom Wolf in February 2015 imposed a moratorium on capital punishment in Pennsylvania, saying he was awaiting the Pennsylvania Joint State Government Commission report, which was released in June.

Prosecutors have 30 days to respond to the motion.

The judge is also considering a separate motion to dismiss the charges on the alleged grounds that a detective misrepresented facts in the case. The prosecution said the misstatements weren’t purposeful and don’t warrant a dismissal.

CHARLESTON, W.Va. (AP) _ The executive director of an office charged with reviewing research on policies that disproportionately affect minority populations says she doesn’t plan to step down after a coalition of about 30 members of progressive and racial justice groups held a press conference calling for her removal.

Herbert Henderson Office of Minority Affairs Executive Director Jill Upson tells the Register-Herald she would agree to a sit-down meeting with those concerned.

NAACP representatives and others held signs Tuesday outside the office in the West Virginia Capitol. Governor Jim Justice recently appointed Upson to lead the office that’s also charged with applying for and awarding grants, and making recommendations to the governor and Legislature.

Some said they didn’t support the appointment for reasons, including a voter ID law she supported. The Henderson Family has also requested that Justice rescind the appointment.

In this Dec. 11, 2018, photo, Ron Nixon, poses for a photo in Washington. Nixon, an acclaimed reporter, editor and data journalist, will join The Associated Press as its international investigations editor, based in Washington. PABLO MARTINEZ MONSIVAIS – ASSOCIATED PRESS

NEW YORK (AP) — Ron Nixon, an acclaimed reporter, editor and data journalist, will join The Associated Press as its international investigations editor, based in Washington.

Nixon, currently homeland security correspondent for The New York Times, will manage a team of reporters based in London, Cairo, New Delhi, Shanghai and Washington, and work closely with colleagues around the globe to conduct ambitious investigative and accountability reporting on a variety of topics.

The appointment was announced Thursday by Michael Hudson, who heads AP’s investigative journalism.

“Ron brings an impressive range of experience and know-how to the job,” Hudson said. “As an editor and reporter, he’s adept at immersing himself in all kinds of stories — from investigations of global propaganda, to the day-to-day workings of America’s homeland security apparatus.”

Nixon has covered border and aviation security, immigration, cybercrime and violent extremism at The Times. He has reported in recent years from Mexico, Belgium, Rwanda, Uganda, Senegal, South Africa, Nigeria and the Democratic Republic of Congo, among other places. He is the author of the book “Selling Apartheid: Apartheid South Africa’s Global Propaganda War,” and is the co-founder of the Ida B. Wells Society, which trains journalists of color in investigative reporting.

Nixon previously worked as data editor at the Minneapolis Star-Tribune, as training director at Investigative Reporters and Editors, and as an environment and investigative reporter at The Roanoke Times in Virginia.

“We are enormously excited and committed to growing AP’s ability to do strong investigative journalism from all corners of the globe, leveraging our worldwide footprint of exceptional people,” said Sally Buzbee, AP’s executive editor. “Ron’s passion, skill and commitment to training and nurturing journalists make him the perfect fit for this critical mission.”

In this Nov. 18, 2018, file photo, former Baltimore Ravens NFL football player Ray Rice stands on the Ravens sideline before a game between the Ravens and the Cincinnati Bengals, in Baltimore. (AP Photo/Nick Wass, file)

NEW YORK (AP) — Former Baltimore Ravens running back Ray Rice says he’s not speaking out against domestic violence as a way to rejoin the NFL.

Appearing Tuesday in a “CBS This Morning” interview with his wife, Janay, Rice said he sees similarities with himself after a video showed Kansas City Chiefs running back Kareem Hunt shoving and kicking a woman at a hotel last month. Hunt was released by the Chiefs.

“Well, obviously, you know, you look back and you see the similarities,” Rice said. “Early on you could feel like ‘Why they keep bringing my name up?’ You can make excuses or you can actually do the hard work,” Rice said.

Rice was dropped from the team after he was captured on videos punching, kicking and dragging his then-fiancee from an elevator in 2014.

In this Nov. 5, 2014, file photo, Ray Rice arrives with his wife, Janay Palmer, for an appeal hearing of his indefinite suspension from the NFL, in New York. (AP Photo/Jason DeCrow, File)

“I hate that person. I hate him. Somewhere down the line everybody who’s sayin’, ‘Does he deserve a second chance for football?’ And this that and the other – I actually got my second chance,” Rice said, when the couple married weeks later.

Janay Rice said she had no idea she was in an abusive relationship until she was forced to think about it. She said she has never seen the video in which Rice beat her. She said it was the first and only time he physically abused her.

“I was there. I lived it. I don’t really need to relive it over and over again just to appease the world,” she said.

Rice denies he’s looking to get back on the field.

“Well, see that for me, is something that I understand why it was being said early on about, you know, is this a ploy to get back into football. And I’ll be the first one to say it. I don’t have to retire to tell you I’m done with football. The pressure I was under of being a star, that was the person I hated the most,” he said.

He has met with the NFL and shared his story as part of the league’s domestic violence education program.

“I know they are working with groups to try to get more of an understanding. And they’re doing the work,” he said.

PITTSBURGH (AP) — One of the first legal bets placed at Pittsburgh’s Rivers Casino sports book didn’t exactly bring the house down.

David Eldridge was one of five people to make the first legal bets at the casino during a grand opening last Thursday.

While many grand openings feature celebrities placing $20 on their favorite team to win the World Series or Super Bowl, Eldridge plunked down $10,000 — and on the New England Patriots over the hometown Pittsburgh Steelers on Sunday, to boot.

The Steelers won, and Eldridge lost. But he tells The Tribune-Review he can absorb the loss and that it won’t keep him from betting in the future.